Men at Work

Guest Author - Elizabeth Darrach

Hello, and welcome back! It's cold here! It's time for me to replenish the tea supply, and stock up on the hot chocolate. Then I can settle in with this stack of reading material towering on the corner of my desk. Lots of good stuff to share with you, including two new ones this time out.

First is the anthology Men at Work (Berkley) with novellas by Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs and Mary Janice Davidson and a trio of hard-working, handyman heroes. In 'Slow Hands' by Janelle Denison, Tess Monroe has come back to her hometown and finds herself in close quarters with Morgan Kane, a sexy man who was once the young boy she left behind. In 'Color Me Wicked' by Nina Bangs, Amanda Harcourt finds herself working with bad boy Con Maguire, the man who broke her heart. And in 'The Fixer-Upper' by Mary Janice Davidson, Cathy Wyth is stuck with the horrid handyman Ken Allen, who turns out not to so horrid, with the help of a ghost named Jack in a bizarre twist. The steam in the first two kept me glued to the pages, but I just couldn't get into the last one. Maybe because Ken was so obnoxious. Who knows? But getting the anthology is worth it just for the first two. It's earned three and a half arrows.

The other book I want to share with you this week is the latest from Barbara Freethy, All She Ever Wanted (Signet). Dr. Natalie Bishop has made a new life for herself, ten years after the tragic death of one of her best friends. But when Cole Parish--her first and only love, and brother of her late friend--walks into her emergency room after a run-in with his latest ex-girlfriend, her past is suddenly all around her, in the form of her other two best friends and a best-selling new book that points to her as her friend's killer. Woohoo! I know when I pick up a new book with Ms. Freethy's name on the cover that I'm in for a good read, and this is no exception. Natalie and Cole's past makes it nearly impossible for them to be together, but you know almost from the start that they just have to be, no matter what. The secondary characters here are very well-drawn as well, with their best friends contributing to the suspense. I read this in one (long) sitting, and hated to reach the end. Then again, Cole has a friend who didn't get his happy ending in this one, so maybe we'll see him again in another story. I'm giving this one four arrows.